JOURNALISTS who covered protests against Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko have been convicted of violating public order and sentenced to two years in prison.
Katsiaryna Bakhvalava and Daria Chultsova, of Polish-funded Belsat TV, were arrested in November when police raided a Minsk apartment from where they were doing a livestream report.
Addressing the court before the verdict on Thursday, Ms Bakhvalava vowed to continue working for “building a Belarus that won’t have political repressions.
“I’m not pleading. I’m demanding acquittal for me and my colleagues,” she said, referring to other jailed journalists.
In a statement, the Belarusian Association of Journalists said: “We consider the sentence politically motivated. Its goal is to scare all journalists to prevent them from fulfilling their professional duty to cover socially important events in the country.